A Whole New World
by xKittyRiku
Summary: Jenna Evans gets marked along with her best friend, but how will they cope? Vampirelover1000x's OC Grace guest stars.
1. Well, That Hurt

_Finally have a new fic. Courtesy of vampirelover1000x, who got me back into writing. Check out her Twilight fanfiction, even if you despise the 't love story._

_

* * *

_

The Beginning

Biology next. Just my luck. Brand-new school and I have my least favourite lesson six times a week, and only one double period of it. I coughed and wiped tired eyes. I'd hardly slept, and when I had finally dropped off, my sleep was fitful.

"Hey, Jenna?" I turned, spinning on my Converse flats. Grace was running towards me, clutching handfuls of paper. A few of them left the pile and floated away with the trail of slipstream that was almost visible behind her – along with the parting of the crowds of impatient students glaring at her. "What're you doing after school? Care for a cinema trip? Need to get out," she yelled. "Weather's pushing me down, need some time to get out of this trance." My best friend- since I moved here, anyway- thrusted the pages she was carrying into my hands. Grace, super organized, brought out a black and gold planner and began flicking through pages.

"Hi, Grace-" I began, getting cut off.

"I knew it Jenna! _The Flying Gunmen _came out today. Please come with me! It has Zac Efron as the main character..."

I don't think much of the guy, being totally honest. But I didn't know him, I guess. I always do it, but I hate people who judge others before knowing them. I mean, I think Andy Sixx is cute, with the whole pale vampire thing going on. Edward Cullen? Too cliché. Not my cup of tea either- far too... spaced out?

"Spaced-out much? Hey? Earth to Jenna."

"Grace?"

"So, is that a yes?"

"Yeah sure, whatever."

Grace smiled and linked her arm through mine. Looking closer, I saw she had dark circles under her eyes, too.

"Didn't get much sleep?"

"Nah, not enough air ventilation."

"Same. Obviously, it was too hot. 34 degrees Celsius."

Grace nodded in agreement. "Right, so Jenna. You going-" Her eyes opened wide, and she gave a hacking cough, hardly getting time to cover her mouth. I know how she felt, every cough was like her lungs were collapsing. We were close; that would be the reason we had come down we the same cold. The girl stopped in her steps. "J-Jenna?"

"W-What, Grace?" My voice was stuttering, catching in my throat. I shouldn't have asked her what she was seeing because I was seeing it too. Whatever 'it' was. The guy standing up against the biology doorframe. Supposed to be safe, doorframes are.

"Jenna Evans! Grace Wicks! Night has chosen thee; thy death will be thy birth. Night calls to thee; hearken to Her sweet voice. Your destinies await you at the House of Night!" He lifted a single pale finger, longer than the average humans should be. I don't know about Grace, but a catastrophic amount of pain hit my forehead. I fell to my knees, curling up in a foetal position. I clutched my head, feeling the throbbing sensation encircling my brow.

"Jenn? Jenn!" I opened my eyes. My head was killing me and I had no idea what had happened. "Did... are you awake?" Grace was standing above me, looking shocked. I gingerly reached up and touched the space between my eyebrows and immediately regretted it. I had lucky never been stabbed through my skull, but I guessed this is what it would feel like.

"What... happened?" I began to sit up, gritting my teeth trying to not feel the worst of the sting. I urged Grace to continue.

"Crazy guy, white hair, youngish? Totally hot. How could you I remember him? BAM, I almost died. Well it felt like it at least. Woah, dude, you look like Death."

"I feel like it." Even though my eyes had been open a while, I suddenly _saw. _"Dude, what the frickin' hell is on your forehead?"

"Look at yours." She pulled out a mirror and showed me my reflection. My hand automatically rose to touch it, before pulling myself back. "See? Even I don't understand it. What should we do? Do you have any concealer?"

"No. I don't, Grace. What practical joke is this? I heaved myself to my feet, looking at the onlookers. "Who did this?" I demanded, pointing to the Mark on my forehead. No-one answered, but everyone who looked in my direction shuffled away as quickly as they could.

Grace pulled on my arm. "Jenn, let it go. You don't need this, we just need make-up and we can live through this. It's nothing, okay babe? Just breathe." I glared at her.

Suddenly, my other arm was yanked out of its socket. Okay, not quite, but it felt like it. I looked down. Man hands. A blindfold was tugged around my eyes, covering the top half of my head. I couldn't see; my breathing pace quickened. Grace let go of my arm. I heard her footsteps chasing after me and my pursuer. I couldn't look up. Even if I could see, the way this guy was holding my arm made it impossible. And it hurt, a lot.

After what seemed like hours, even though it was more like minutes, I was shoved into a damp smelling room. From the scream Grace gave, it sounded like the man holding me had closed the door on her.

I kicked out, connecting with something solid. The man gasped- giving me a chance to move away, swiftly. I backed towards the direction of what I thought was a door, tripped, and smashed my back into a wall. I dropped down onto the floor, my feet knocking over a bucket. Water sloshed over me as I leaned down, bending over myself. I fiddled with the blindfold's knot, and to my surprise, the man didn't stop me; his breathing slowed, but he didn't move. As the blindfold slipped off, I covered my eyes. The throbbing in my head was getting worse, my eyes were getting tired. I wanted to go home and sleep, or at least for the adrenaline that was supposed to be rushing through me to start waking up and working.

"I didn't think I'd get a protestor," a voice told me. I frowned in confusion. The pain was easing off, especially since I had heard this guys' voice. It was so beautiful; deep, but silky, almost... musical. Should I risk a glance at him? I didn't want to crush the image of him I had in my head, and I didn't want to see him with a weapon. Although, he didn't seem like the type of person to carry a weapon- a voice in my head was telling me he was here because he had been pranked, too.

I looked up, and the second I did I felt something crushing against my lips. A pressure, not too soft, firm. I opened my eyes and looked up. A flash of black hair, but he was there. _Kissing _me. He was holding me, pushing me further into the wall. I elbowed him away, covering my mouth.

"W-What? Who the hell are you?" My voice was low, tentative. I didn't know who this guy was, but as he moved away from me, I saw him smirking. Jerk.

"It's been a long time since I did that to anyone." The guys' smirk grew bigger, as his eyes squinted through the darkness. "You're a blue, huh?"

"A what?"

"You have the Mark."

"Oh, yeah." I thought that much was obvious. This guy was obviously much slower than I thought he'd be. Another first appearance, I guess.

"Me too." I raised my eyebrows. In response, he flicked his long, dark fringe upwards, revealing a blue crescent, a match to mine. And Grace's. Grace.

"Grace. You left her outside, why?"

"I don't know. Instinct." Right. "And anyway, she seems annoying. Hey, you probably have quite a few questions, right?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Shoot."

"Uh, okay... Why have I got this? Who pulled the joke? Because it isn't funny."

"You're obviously not as clever as I thought you were." Where had I heard that line before? Could this guy read thoughts? "It's not a joke. It's the real thing."

"Oh of course it wasn't," I told him. "Of course, it's real. A Mark just 'appears' on my forehead."

"Actually, it kinda does. Unless you have another explanation? I assume you do."

"Er, a needle filled with a mild sedative was shot at me between the eyes, I went out for a few hours while someone painted this _thing_ on me with permanent paint." I glared into the one eye he was showing. As if on cue, he pushed his hair out of his eyes. And laughed.

His laugh was velvety- if not more velvety as his voice. It filled the room, echoing throughout the small closet. From the bucket of water, I guess at it being a Janitors' closet. Who knew? I smiled at him through the darkness. But frowned quickly afterwards- he had still laughed at my analogy.

The man swivelled his head to look towards the door. "Listen, Jenna."

I gasped.

"How did you know my name?" I shuffled out from against the wall, moving as quickly as possible to the door.

He ignored me. "You and your friend need to come with me."

"If you think I'm going anywhere with a stranger you can think again."

"Name's Alex. Now we aren't strangers. Okay?" No, not really.

I sighed. He was persistent; I'd give him that. "What? Make it fast."

"You are Changing. In a minute, second, or hour, you'll go through a change, just like I did. Basically, you'll become a Vampyre Fledgling. Either that, or you won't survive the Change and you'll die." Nice. Just what I needed. "The same thing will happen to Grace, and then after that you'll be required to go to the House of Night."

"The... what?"

"House of Night. It's a school for people like you and me."

"Weirdos?"

"Vampyre Fledglings. That is, if you survive the Change."

"I see." I stood, to my full height, trying to use my five foot seven inches to my advantage. Then Alex stood up. He must have been at least six foot, if not taller. "Erm, so why are you telling me this?"

"My job. I'm kind of on probation. If you can call it that. Recruiting, I guess."

"For the school?"

"No... let me put it this way... it's not fair people are being chosen to go and get Marked, so I'm there for them, I'm there so that they can smile again and get to the House of Night without worrying too much, etc."

"Right."

"You blatantly need my help as it is."

"Thanks."

"No problem. So you ready?"

"I never said I was going anywhere." This guy had nerve. If my Mother had told me one thing, it was to not be around strangers.

* * *

**Please Review, it would mean a lot ^_^**


	2. Hazy Travels

"_No problem. So you ready?"_

_ "I never said I was going anywhere." This guy had nerve. If my Mother had told me one thing, it was to not be around strangers._

I looked at Alex, and felt myself being drawn to him. Some alluring power, some weird tingling sensation inside me. I moved closer to him, breathing in his vibrant scent, being absorbed into his beautiful blue eyes...

BANG. I jumped backwards into the wall, finding myself standing. "What the hell?" I yelled out, clutching my beating heart. The door slowly clicked open, and Grace was standing in the bright archway with a defiant grin on her face.

"Mwahaa," she laughed evilly. "I knew you'd get a boyfriend, eventually." She smirked at Alex, and then at me.

Alex gave her a Death Stare, in which I accompanied him. Grace shrugged us off, pressing her lips together to hold back supposed laughter.

"We need to get to the House of Night school-"

"Why?" Grace cut Alex off, irritation spreading on her forehead.

"Because, Grace," Alex began, and revealed to her the story he had told me. His voice, I noticed, was smooth, like one of those voices who keep nature shows interesting. I could fall asleep listening to that beautiful sound... And then I realized. I believed everything he was saying, every word.

"Grace." I interrupted her thoughts, blocking out the image Alex had given her about her own forthcoming death. "We... need to do as he says. At least then we'll have a chance of survival. It's time to get away."

Alex nodded in agreement; Grace glared.

"I'm warning you Grace," Alex turned to her. "You're making it worse for yourself."

"Making what worse?" She screamed, "You lied! None of this is happening, none of it!" Alex's eyes opened wide, watching Grace laugh hysterically and catching the attention of any passersby.

"Grace," Alex said, his tones whispered and rash, "you need to believe me. You don't want this to end-" I noticed his stop, and I followed his gaze down to the ground where my best friend, Grace, was lying in a pool of blood. Her _own _blood. Wet and dark.

Before I could stop myself, I threw back my head and screamed, and then dived at the floor, clutching at Grace's hands, legs, torso, her clothes, hair, anything I could get my hands on. She had to be alive, if she wasn't... I don't know what I'd do. "Grace, Grace!" I kept murmuring, again and again and again. It wasn't _right. _It just wasn't... and then, it clicked. Alex saw the pain on my face, and put his arm around me, clutching me as if I were to kill myself in grief.

"It's alright, she's in a better place now, with the Goddess."

"Goddess?" I asked, looking into his frightfully large blue eyes. "Who?"

"The Goddess Nyx, of course."

"Again, who?"

"She's like- no- she is the Vampyre equivalent to God. She's pretty and amazing, and fair and just." I noticed his sparkling expression as he imagined the Goddess. I tried rolling the word around on my tongue; _Goddess. Goddess. _No matter how many times I said it, it didn't seem to fit with my idiolect. Not one bit. "Are you alright?"

I gave him a look, then pointedly gazed at Grace, in the middle of a gathering crowd. "We need to get her out of here, give her a proper burial."

"A... what?" Alex started laughing, receiving dirty looks from the gatherers, obviously not comfortable with the thought of a boy laughing at the scene of a death. "Ah..." He said, searching for an explanation. It didn't take much thought, Alex simply looked at the passersby closest to him. "She's... It's improv. For her drama assignment. She had you all fooled, didn't she?" He laughed, short and sharp, and then picked Grace up and slug her over her shoulder, holding his breath.

"What's wrong?" I hissed. "Is she heavy?" Alex shook his head. I decided not to press him further; anything could be wrong. The walk was quiet and the only sound was my jagged breaths. Before I realised, we were at his car, about to open the door when suddenly, the wind blew, pulling my hair back off my face... and then, I smelt it. The irrevocable spell of Grace made my eyes flash, my teeth felt suddenly hard and elongated...

"Jenn-" Alex threw Grace onto the bonnet of the car, and pushed me backwards. I stumbled a few times, before colliding with a silver Volvo in the next parking space. I felt my eyes flashing again, so I covered them with my hand. The pain in my back distracted me from the alluring smell, and I tumbled down onto my backside.

"Why did that... happen?"

"It's the blood, Jenna."

"The blood?" My mind flashed back to the pool of blood Grace had been lying in just ten minutes ago. "_Her _blood?" I quivered, before realising that Vampyres _like _blood, they live on it. The taste, the amazing texture, smooth and sweet... I opened my eyes wide in shock as I thought about what I was saying... I wasn't craving her blood... My best friend's blood. I couldn't be. Never.

"Yeah, her blood. Jesus. Jenna, get used to it, alright?"

I cringed at the tone of his voice. "Sorry." I was, truly. But his voice was fed-up, like he'd had a lot of experience in this sort of place. Like he'd had to deal with more young men and women like myself, that had been in this situation many a time. Perhaps even worse. I don't know. From then on, the details of our journey to the House of Night school in- well- somewhere. I'm sure Alex will tell me when I awake...


	3. Waking

My eyes fluttered open. "Where are we?"

"Does it matter?" I looked up at Alex, who was sitting in the corner of the room, glaring moodily out of the window.

"If you expect me to reside here, then yes, it does matter."

"We're in Scotland."

"Scotland?"

"Yeah. You've been asleep 14 hours."

"14… hours?"

Alex looked at his watch. "14 hours, 56 minutes and… 19 seconds."

"Oh…" I groaned, groggily sitting up and hammering my head the back of the head board. I recollected the events from last night, each memory returning to one person. "What did you do with Grace?"

"Oh, um…"

"Just tell me. I've had enough crap in the last two days to last me a lifetime."

"We… disposed of her." He saw me flinch at the words I was trying _not_ to flinch at. "By burning her."

"Burning?"

"It's a Vampyre culture, but I did the burning alone. No-one else out here knew about her."

"What did you tell her family?"

"They think she's been kidnapped. In about two months we'll set the record straight by planting a-" he saw my face again, this time the horror upon it was clear.

"Please, don't continue."

"Right…"

"Where did you say we were again?"

"In the only half underground House of night in the country- in the world, currently."

"Yes, and _where _is that?"

Alex sighed, annoyed at my impatience. I couldn't see why, he had kept avoiding the question. "The Outer Hebrides. It's so empty around here; except from the tourists. We only get about a thousand a year, though."

"A thousand? How come they don't see this place?"

"I told you, it's half underground. And away from beaches."

"Beaches?" At home, we'd hardly hard a chance to go to any beaches. It was nice to know I could get away, especially in the daytime…

"Not in the mid-daytime."

"Huh?"

"Jesus, you're starting to wind me up."

"Starting to?" A new voice entered the room; without looking up I could tell it was a man. Maybe late teens, young twenties. I kept my head down, pretending to be otherwise occupied with the edge of my shirt. "Who's the chick?"

"The 'chick' has a name," I told him, clenching my teeth. If there was one thing I hated, that was it.

"And that would be…?"

"J-" I was cut off by what sounded like a guttural growl from Alex's direction.

"It's none of your business, James."

"Ooh, someone's a bit possessive now, isn't he?" His voice was the kind to charm a monster, zombie, werewolf, whatever- it was charming. Beautiful. I'd never heard anything so musically demanding in my lifetime. James's head turned back to my direction, his eyes piercing my skull. I could feel it; so I looked up. "Hmm. Not bad."

I couldn't help it, I had to ask. "Not bad… what?"

"Face, stupid."

"What?"

"Ignore him, Jenn-"

James's mouth spread into a smirk. "My ex-girlfriend was called Jen."

"So?"

"Alex," he said, paying no heed to my question. "You're needed in the kitchen; you know what I'm saying."

"Not again?"

"No, of course not. I'm saying this for no reason at all-"

Alex interrupted the sarcasm from dripping off James's tongue any more. "I will go, but you will escort me."

"Really, Alexander, you need an escort?"

"Really, James, I do." Alex glanced in my direction, and then looked pointedly at James. "Don't get any ideas."

"I will."

Simply raising his eyebrows, the boy that had led me here left the room, hovering by the door. "I'll wait down the hall for you, James. Jenna, get some rest. I'll be back in the morning." I nodded; Alex left me alone with James, giving me a chance to view his profile in full.

He was quite tall, around 6 foot 1, with dark brown hair and a sweeping side fringe. He was wearing a medium/dark blue t-shirt with white prints on it and long, a darker blue- almost black- jeans. Underneath his t-shirt muscles pulsed, travelling down his arms to his rather large, manly hands… And then there was his forehead. A blue crescent moon, identical to Alex's stared me out, the blue glow haunting my eyes as I squinted them away at the window.

"Do you mind not scrutinizing me?" James smirked again, giving me a knowing look. Was I really that predictable?

"I…"

"Listen, stay in bed, don't go outside. I'll show you around later if you like, I'm really quite- you know what? Never mind, kiddo. See you around." James walked out the room, his hazel eyes not leaving mine until the last second.

I was alone at last, scowling at the fact that I was called 'kiddo'. What was going on here? I was often called mature for my age back home- what had changed since then? The only thing I could think of that had possibly changed would be what I was guessing the ghostly moon emblem that would reside on my forehead from hereby onwards.


End file.
